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Thursday, June 25, 2009

Absolute beginners

Benedict Brogan has an interesting comment piece in today's Telegraph suggesting that more than half of the current batch of Tory MPs may not be around after the next election.

[T]hose around the leader are talking about possibly 100 of their 193 MPs being replaced. No wonder, then, that the Conservative backbenches are seething. It is dawning on them that they are being culled, whether by the leadership or the public, and they do not know what to do.

It's worth noting that the "cull" has very little to do with the expenses scandal and a lot to do with Cameron getting rid of the kind of conservative Conservative that no longer fits the profile of the New Tory Party.

There is resentment at the way Mr Cameron operates. He is too aloof, some MPs say, and relies on a small inner circle for advice, leaving the rest to stew.

Hmmm - sound familiar? I seem to recall similar accusations against a certain Anthony Blair.

Some MPs also reveal a deeper unease about the party's direction. "But what do we believe?" they ask, reluctant to consider that the consistent double-digit leads in the polls are for real or that the public has taken to Mr Cameron as a prime minister-in-waiting.

What do they believe? The New Tory Party believes in power - nothing else. There is no "direction" other than attaining power. The last thing the New Tory Party wants to do is confuse voters who provide that "double-digit lead" with things like policy and direction. Nope - just stick to vague and grandiose sound bites. It worked for Obama!

While we're on the subject of polls - a double-digit lead is meaningless. The Lib Dems have a double-digit lead over UKIP but are no more likely to win the next election! To actually achieve a large enough swing the Tories need to be looking at at least 50% in the polls to have a realistic chance of winning a decent majority in parliament - and they are not even close to that.

But supposing they do and they end up winning a landslide with some 400 or so Conservative MPs. More than three quarters of those MPs will be complete novices while most of the rest will have never served in government. Their leader is a novice himself having never had a significant position in government before. The Cabinet will be stuffed full of New Tory MPs with little idea of what is required and even less idea about how to go about achieving that.

And all this at a time when Britain is facing an unparalleled economic and political crisis.

This does not bode well for the New Tory Party - but it is even worse for Britain with the country in the hands of absolute beginners.

That's not hard to believe, NNW - it would be pretty tough to find candidates less socially conservative than Cameron!

"But he'll wait until they are voted in, of course."

Well, for me JuliaM, the signs are all there. What amazes me is that there are still Conservative voters out there who believe that once voted in Cameron will suddenly reveal himself to be a true blue Tory and that all this liberal pinko nonsense is just a front to fool the electorate. I think they are going to be disappointed.

Anon, that makes no sense. How can you vote Tory if you believe - as I do - that it will make absolutely no difference to the style or politics of the government? If you vote Tory you are just voting for the more of the same which we've had for the last 17 years (yep - 17 years. It all started with Major).

It doesn't matter who you vote for - but if you vote for Labour, Tories or the Lib Dems you are basically signing up to the liberal progressive consenssus - the ideology which has been used over the last 50 years to completely undermine this nation's traditions, culture and history.

Onlt by not voting for any of the mainstream parties can we demonstrate that we are no longer going to tolerate this "consensus" which is slowly destroying our nation from the inside out.

Unfortunately, your argument is exactly the sort of thing I'm hearing from conservatives that convinces me that there is no more hope for conservatism or this nation.

Let's all vote Tory - the country is fucked so we might as well put it out of its misery.